CHARLOTTE — When Nic Batum woke up in France the morning of June 21, he was stunned to find his phone inundated with voice and text messages from various members of the Hornets organization on the other side of the world.

DALLAS — Dennis Smith Jr. shrugged at the apparently soaring expectations for the point guard taken by the Dallas Mavericks with their highest draft position since getting Dirk Nowitzki nearly 20 years ago.

Besides, the 19-year-old wonders, how realistic can those expectations be?

ATLANTA — Justin Thomas is the FedEx Cup champion, a surprise to no one who saw him power his way to scoring records, his first major at the PGA Championship and more PGA Tour victories than anyone this season.

Standing next to him at the trophy ceremony was Xander Schauffele, who never…

Nash Central football coach Chris Lee has talked about working with quarterback Travis Griffin on staying in the pocket longer rather than taking off to run at the first sign of pressure. It’s been a successful endeavor as Griffin and his receivers have shined this season.

Sometimes, however,…

Nash Central too much for Gryphons/High-Schools/2017/09/23/Nash-Central-too-much-for-Gryphons.html3

The matchup: The Bulldogs close out what has been a successful non-conference portion of its schedule by visiting a familiar opponent. These two programs have been conference rivals in the past, but Nash Central’s move to the 2-A ranks ends…

Gryphons, Bulldogs give each other tests prior to conference play/High-Schools/2017/09/22/One-Final-Tuneup.html3

The N.C. Wesleyan men’s golf program is set to hold its 2017 Don Scalf Invitational on Sunday and Monday at Belmont Lake Golf Club. The Bishops, who won last year's event by 27 strokes, will welcome the largest field of coach Gregg Ripke's tenure when 48 golfers representing eight different…

Battling Bishops set for Scalf event/College/2017/09/22/Battling-Bishops-set-for-Scalf-event.html3